Friday, October 23, 2009

Carolyn Steel: How Food Shapes Cities

If you have 15 minutes, this TED talk by Carolyn Steel about how food has shaped our cities (and how today it's shaping our planet) is worth a watch.

At 12:55 minutes, she cites, with one simple slide, the essential ingredient to our health-giving, planet-sustaining future.

"It's people who think about food, who think ahead, who plan, who can stare at a pile of raw vegetables and actually recognize them. We need these people."

Why? Because these linchpins, these fanatic cooks, create demand for food markets, which in turn create demand for local and regional food plots, greenhouses, landscapes that support livestock, "cows with a view," "steaming piles of humus."

"We live in a world shaped by food, and if we realize that, we can use food as a really powerful tool ... to shape the world differently."

What will that different world look like?

"Well I think it looks a bit like this. ... It's food at the center of life, at the center of family life, being celebrated, being enjoyed, people taking time for it. This is where food should be in our society."